| Lord Flashheart said: Until Linux is as easy to use as windows, DL, click, install, run, or an alternative comes out that does make it as simple as that windows will stay on top. That's why windows sold. Command based os wont reach the masses these days. I have a good knowledge of PC's and how to use them but getting ubuntu to do what I wanted was a chore. Ease of access and familiarity is windows biggest selling point over other os. All those gamers who bought windows for gaming also bought it to use as a pc. I doubt gaming whilst a big factor for a lot of gamers was as big an influence in windows success as you think. Windows was already the number 1 os before gaming took off on the PC. |
If you choose well supported HW, Ubuntu is very easy. Preinstalled it would be even easier. I know people who "opens the Internet" (if not even "opens Facebook", or another site they prefer) and they don't even know they arte using IE to browse... A friend of my sister's had her IE messed up, she did understand so little I couldn't do anything by phone, then an ex-bf of my sister, who happened to having seen her PC and what programs she had, told her to just launch FF instead of IE (not knowing she already had it, I didn't dare to suggest her by phone to install it). She wasn't very happy because she had a handy icon directly launching IE on FBK so that she hadn't to type the address, I told her to just tell FF to save the session when she closed it (it was really impossible by phone to have her make that icon or create another icon to directly launch FF on FBK) and all was solved, although in a suboptimal way.
For people like that, preinstallation, just like it happens for Windows, an icon to directly open FBK, another for Google, one for the mail, and they otfen use web mail, and little else would be enough to making them not notice whether they are using an OS or another.
About gaming on PC: DOS was big in gaming when in consoles world only Nintendo was surviving, Windows 3.x was an absolute dwarf, but it ran on DOS, so no problem, Win9x started Windows' growth in gaming, particularly when DirectX 5 started improving the abysmal performances of DX 2 and 3 (on my low end first PC DX 5 made playable some games previously unplayable).
Gaming helped a lot Win9x, but IBM clumsiness with OS/2 helped it even more, also because while years after MS, just threatened with fines, preferred disobeying antitrust and tribunals' rulings to carry on unfair practices that were increasing its power and wealth, back then IBM, fearing to be split, complied even more than necessary.
So the situation is by no means simple, gaming was just one of many factors, not the biggest, but not small, though.
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